The Magpies were awarded penalty in first-half stoppage time for Steve Morison's foul on Mike Williamson and Hatem Ben Arfa, who scored from the spot against Tottenham on the opening day of the season, grabbed the ball.

But he was persuaded to hand it over to Cisse, who promptly skied the ball over the bar from 12 yards - much to the displeasure of assistant manager John Carver on the sidelines.

However, Pardew, who once again watched the game from the stands as he completed his two-match touchline ban, was slightly more understanding over what might have been a costly error.

He said: "I can understand why they did that. They want Papiss to score.

"Players look after players. You would be surprised - it's not as cut-throat as maybe the media sometimes put out. They genuinely wanted him to score the goal and I could see that."